The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2022, pt. 32: Arrate Hidalgo

 

Reading Pleasures in 2022

by Arrate Hidalgo

 

For this year's pleasures series, I’m sticking to books. The amount of reading I've done this year is of course unmatched by the amount of show-watching, but I’ve been able to return to reading for pleasure at a rate I had been missing for a while. Below I list some of those books and the reasons why I picked them (besides the fact that they’re available in English, which left some Spanish and all Basque titles out. Do ask if you’re interested in those).

 I wish us all a kind entry into 2023.

 

Dead Collections - Isaac Fellman

Why: the vampire everydayness and the obvious passion for archival thinking and difficult conversations.

 

Shadow & Claw (The first half of The Book of the New Sun) - Gene Wolfe

Why: the hints at our present and the unreliability of the narrator. Plus the language.

 

Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

Why: the author’s ability to transmit the way things smell. And the beautiful Spanish translation by Concha Cardeñoso.

 

My Tender Matador (Tengo miedo torero) - Pedro Lemebel (translation from Spanish by Katherine Silver)

Why: the lovely mix of frills and toughness, the vertigo of some scenes.

 

Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World - Linda Hogan

Why: the richness of non-human histories lovingly passed on.

 

Love - Toni Morrison

Why: the characters’ voices popping out of the book.

 

Precursor (Foreigner saga # 4) – C. J. Cherryh

Why: the atevi. Always the atevi.

 

Bad Girls (Las malas)  - Camila Sosa Villada (translation from Spanish by Kit Maude)

Why: the survival of magic in the face of cruelty and unimaginativeness.

 

 

My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

Why: the dark comedy and thrills mixed with sisterly love.

 

Unbecoming - Lesley Wheeler

Why: the ease with which it creeps up and inconspicuously topples normality.

 

The Death of Vivek Oji - Akwaeke Emezi

Why: the life contained at the core despite immense unfolding grief.

 

Heart Berries - Terese Marie Mailhot

Why: the sting of truth and unapologetic prose.

 

Bonus: Mothers don't (Amek ez dute) - Katixa Agirre (translation from Spanish by Katie Whittemore)

Why: I already explained, but it’s in English now.

 

Extra bonus: Book of Travels  - Might & Delight (I cheated, this is a video game!)

Why: the sense of wonder it achieves like no other video game I recall in recent memory.

 

 Among other things,  Arrate Hidalgo is Associate Editor at Aqueduct Press. She is also an English to Spanish translator, an founder and organizer of a feminist sf con, and an amateur singer. Visit her website at arratehidalgo.com. Her English-language translation of the Basque science fiction classic, Memories of Tomorrow, by Mayi Pelot, was released by Aqueduct Press in 2022 as a volume in Aqueduct's Heirloom Book series.